Wasted Spaces

Last month, I made a couple of Craigslist purchases. The first was a large number of used 40" by 48" sheets of 1/2" CDX plywood. I didn't really have a specific purpose in mind for them, but at $2 a sheet, I couldn't pass it up. You never know when you might need to build something on the farm.

The second purchase was a barely used transport chair for Mom. She still walks fine, but she seems to tire more quickly now. She'll be walking along, and all of a sudden she's done. She needs to sit immediately. It helps to have the wheelchair handy, then she can sit when she gets tired, and I can push her wherever we were going. I just keep the wheelchair in the truck, and we're ready. It is great when we have to venture to a store. She will usually stay sitting in the chair, so it helps tremendously when I'm trying to shop. We go toodling around the store in style!

When we do venture to town, we usually make several stops. The first is usually the farm store, where I buy 50 lb bags of chicken, dog, and cat food, among other heavy things. We then go to the grocery store, where I have usually arranged to just pick up the items. (I order online, and the store does the shopping and has it waiting for me.) There may be other stops too. By the time we're heading home, the back of the truck is full, and I still have to find room for the wheelchair. Or sometimes stuff gets piled on top of the wheel chair, and I have to move everything to get it out. A minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but still an annoyance.

When I saw this on TV this morning, a lightbulb went off. Measuring the wheelchair, I actually chortled. Who chortles anymore? The measurement I needed? A minimum of 36" by 48". Remember the sheets of plywood? 40" by 48". How handy!

It isn't as fancy as theirs, but it works for me. For a grand total of $4.00 of plywood, a few screws, and maybe 1 1/2 hours (it would have been way less, but my cordless drill was only charged enough to drill a few starter holes, I had to manually screw everything) of my time, I have the perfect hidey hole for the wheelchair.

Bags of feed, groceries, etc. can all pile on top of the platform, and the wheelchair fits nicely underneath. There is extra room under the platform too, so overflow stuff can tuck in around the wheelchair if necessary.

Eventually I might take the time to sand the edges down, and maybe even paint it to make it look nice, but I am pretty tickled with it the way it is.